The Beatles at Queens Hotel, Southport

The Beatles played around 30 concerts in Southport across nine different venues. Some have gone and some remain. They performed a concert at the Queens Hotel and on a day trip to the coast I went to see if it still exists - it does.....well the original building does.

At the time the lad's reputation was spreading beyond The Cavern on Mathew Street in Liverpool. They played at the hotel on Thursday evening on 6th December 1962 before they got too famous. Club Django situated on the ground floor normally hosted jazz groups but management had heard of The Beatles who buzzed with banter between songs. They booked them to play and they were appeared after a local quartet act called The Diplomats.

No photos of the night knowingly exist. The lads weren’t famous and cameras were expensive. Ringo had only been the drummer for four months. It was 1962 and the lads had only formed two years earlier. The audience that night didn’t know they'd go on to serve as the polestar for the hopes and dreams of their generation. Their performances weren't long and they probably did no more than forty minutes.

The building - now Queens Hotel Court - sits stoutly on the Promenade looking across to the Irish Sea. It fell into disrepair but has since been converted to residential housing with 32 flats. The "Queen Hotel" sign now has "Court" appended to it.

I took a few photos of the place and could imagine the lads pulling up outside in their van driven by their driver/helper Mal Evans. They probably stood outside smoking before doing their turn. Two months after the gig their debut song Love Me Do would be released and they’d grow too big to play at hotels. It was good to see the place hadn't been ripped down. I did a salute and left.